John Graves Simcoe

John Graves Simcoe (25 February 1752-26 October 1806) was Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada under Great Britain from 1791 to 1796, preceding Peter Russell. Simcoe was the commander of the Queen's Rangers during the American Revolutionary War, leading to Simcoe being involved in raids against both the Continental Army and its leaders as well as in fighting any patriot sympathizers within the British-occupied territories.

Biography
John Graves Simcoe was born on 25 February 1752 in Cotterstock, England to a Welsh family. Simcoe was educated at Eton College and joined the Union Lodge of the Freemasons in Exeter in 1773, but he decided to put his other dreams aside so that he could enlist in the British Army in 1770. Simcoe purchased a commission as Captain in the 40th Regiment of Foot after the murder of Captain Charles Joyce in 1776, and he was stationed in Setauket, New York. Simcoe was wounded and captured in the failed raid on Meigs Harbor in the autumn of 1776, but he was later released in a prisoner exchange and saw action in the Battle of Brandywine in 1777, where he ordered his men not to shoot at fleeing American troops, ironically including George Washington.

Simcoe became commander of the Queen's Rangers on 15 October 1777, some 330 light infantry soldiers that saw action at the Battle of Crooked Billet during the Philadelphia campaign. Simcoe's ranger unit would raid the Continental Army several times, and in October 1779 he began Simcoe's Raid in New Jersey, burning rebel supplies until he was captured by Charles Armand Tuffin. In 1781, he was released by the patriots and returned to the fight in Virginia, fighting at Spencer's Ordinary and at the Siege of Yorktown. In December 1781, he returned to England as a Lieutenant-Colonel and invalided, and he would serve as Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada from 1791 to 1796. When Simcoe returned to England, he became a member of Parliament and helped in the establishment of courts of law, trial by jury, common law, freehold land tenure, and the abolition of slavery. He died in 1806.